Tag: SharePoint Online

How to configure metadata navigation for a document library in SharePoint Online or SharePoint 2013/2016/2019?

Sigar DaveSahrepoint 2010 / Share Point / Sharepoint 2010 / Sharepoint 2013 / SharePoint 2016 / SharePoint OnlineLeave a comment

This SharePoint article will discuss how to configure metadata navigation for a document library in SharePoint Online or SharePoint 2013/2016/2019?

A metadata navigation filter will help the user to dynamically filter the content from the SharePoint lists or document libraries based on the metadata in SharePoint Online or SharePoint Online or SharePoint 2013/2016/2019.

What is the MetaData in SharePoint

Metadata is data about data, meaning metadata describes additional details about an item, file or document. Like Metadata for a file can be author name, document type, document size, etc. 

If you want to associate metadata to a document, first you need to add a column to the document library.

Why we have the Metadata column concept?

SharePoint introduced metadata to overcome problems with the folder structure inside a document library.

Few problems with folder structure inside the SharePoint document library are:

  1. Very difficult to get information from the nested folder structure.
  2. If you have more nested folders then you may face URL length limitation problem, because URL length is limited to ~260 characters.
  3. You can not sort or filter from SharePoint document library headers. Like this, there are lots of disadvantages.

How to configure metadata navigation for a list or library SharePoint Online/SharePoint 2010/13/16/19

To demonstrate this, I have particularly selected the SharePoint custom document library.  In this document library, I have added one custom column of choice type called “Course For” which has values like Administrator- Developer- End Users- Interview Questions & Answers. I have already uploaded a few documents to the document library as well.

  1. To work with the Metadata navigation we need to activate a site level feature “Metadata Navigation and Filtering” first.
  2. To activate that, click on the gear icon on the top right corner of a page and then click Site Content. This will open a site contents page.
  3. Click on the Site Settings link. This will open the site settings page
  4. Then click on the “Managed site features” link which is presented in the “Site Actions” category.
  5. Then in the “Site Features” features page look for the “Metadata Navigation and Filtering” feature and click on Activate like below:

Once the feature is activated successfully, go back to the document library again.

Click on the gear icon and then select “Library Settings”. In the library settings page, click on the “Metadata navigation settings” which is under General Settings.

Then in the “Metadata Navigation Settings” page go to the “Configure Key Filters” section and there you can see the available columns in the “Available Key Filter Fields” section.

Here I have added the “Course For” to appear in the filter list like below:

Now if you will go back to the document library you can see a Key Filters section must be appearing on the right side like below.

You can click on the checkbox for the Course  For, and it will show only the documents which match the filter criteria.

Configure Navigation Hierarchies: Metadata navigation is really helpful to find content in large lists or libraries.

You can also Configure navigation hierarchies from the Metadata Navigation Settings page. Visit the Metadata Navigation Settings page and then from the “Configure Navigation Hierarchies” section select the column which you want to appear in the hierarchy like below. Here I have added the Course custom column which we have created for the document library.

Note: These navigation hierarchies are only visible in the Classic experience and not in the modern experience of a site.

Conclusion: In this article, we have understood how to configure metadata navigation for a document library in SharePoint Online, and SharePoint 2013/2016/2019. 

Happy SharePointing!!!

Add a Web part section is not showing in Internet Explorer

Sigar DaveUncategorizedLeave a comment

Issue:

Add a Web part section is not showing in Internet Explorer for the Intranet sites.

Resolution :

To overcome this issue for the sharepoint intranet sites we need to set this site as to be open in compatibility mode. To do that follow the steps as given below.

  1. Go to Tool > Compatibility view settings
  2. Add the url of your site in the text box and then click Add.
  3. Check the box of Display intranet sites in compatibility mode
  4. Click close.
Compatibility View Settings

Let me know in comments if this helps or not.

Happy SharePointing!!!

TrickyCoder – Best practices for SharePoint a Document Management System – part 2

Sigar DaveUncategorizedLeave a comment

This post is a in the continuation with the previous post. If you have not read that you can read it at herehttps://trickycoder.com/trickycoder-best-practices-for-sharepoint-a-document-management-system-part-1/

CHECK OUT FEATURE

If the organisation requires the ability to co-author on Microsoft Office documents in the library, it is recommended not to turn on the ‘Require Check Out’ setting.

The function of this feature is to prevent alteration of a document by multiple individuals. This is a good feature to have when there is more than one person working on a specific project or to prevent another from making changes to completed work without consulting you about it first.

Key benefits:

  • Minimising data conflicts by turning on the require check out feature
  • Allowing for co-authoring of Microsoft Office documents when the require check out feature is turned off
  • Maintain data integrity.

DOCUMENT LIBRARY PERMISSIONS

In document libraries, the permissions recommended to be set up is to adhere to using SharePoint groups rather than granting users access directly to the library. This minimizes admin overhead from a permissions management perspective.

With this security model, users can be added/removed from the SharePoint group(s), which subsequently controls their access levels to the library, depending on the group’s assigned permission levels on the library. Without the need for folders, permissions can be set up directly on the document library (if the library is to have unique permissions different to the site level permissions), otherwise the library’s permissions can inherit from the defined permissions at the site level.

Key benefits:

  • Controlling who has access to specific content in document libraries using the SharePoint security model.

DOCUMENT LIBRARY VIEWS

The All Documents document library view is the default view that typically always has all the metadata properties in the library visible. This view is to be used for doing bulk tagging on the documents in the library, post the bulk upload of files. It can also be considered as the administrative view of the library.

Key benefits:

  • Improved content find-ability
  • Reporting of content
  • Enhanced user productivity
  • Bulk tagging of documents in the library post bulk upload.

CONFIGURE ALERTS

Alerts can be set up in a document library. They will inform you if someone is trying to change or delete your documents in some form or fashion. It will also keep you up to date on what has been added / changed in the document library through email notifications. The following are the available options to configure for the alert:

Key benefits:

  • Stay up to date with content updates in the document library
  • Enhance document library collaboration
  • Improve productivity.

Thanks and Happy SharePointing!!!

Courtesy: you can read the whole article here

TrickyCoder – Best practices for SharePoint a Document Management System – part 1

Sigar DaveUncategorizedLeave a comment

Companied who has adopted sharepoint as their document management system have some common issues for their document libraries, particularly in the case where a best practice is not followed for the document libraries.

The common issues that are faced are:

  • Usability
  • Lengthy URLs exceeding the URL length limitation
  • Navigation
  • Cost
  • Large libraries exceeding the 5,000 item list view threshold limit
  • Cannot co-author Microsoft Office documents
  • Data save conflicts. Security
  • User experience
  • File duplication
  • 1 Lonely View
  • Cannot sort and filter
  • Lost documents
  • Change is hard

Most of the times companies ask us to migrate thier Network share files to the SharePoint Document library.

To fullu take advantage of the SharePoint, it is always advise to convert the file share system to sharepoint using the best practices.

1. DOCUMENT VERSIONING

Enable library versioning to ensure a complete version history is kept and maintained. This allows document changes to be tracked, and provides a mechanism to allow users to restore from previous versions if required and view details on past changes made.

Key benefits:

  • Store Major and/or Minor versions on documents in the library, providing the option for restoring previous versions if/when required
  • Track changes on documents.

INDEXED COLUMNS

To improve the performance of a large list or library, you can index a column. An index on a column enables SharePoint to quickly analyse the data in that column, even when working with thousands or millions of items. For a view to quickly filter through a large number of items, the filter must be applied to a column that is indexed.

Key benefits:

  • Indexed columns in document libraries bypasses the 5,000 items list view threshold limit
  • Improved performance and helps manage large libraries.

DOCUMENT LIBRARY NAMING AND FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS

Document libraries must have a logical name to make the document management solution intuitive to use and ensure content is uploaded into the correct location. This would improve user adoption and collaboration.

File naming conventions are recommended to be named in a logical manner and short to ensure URL length limits are adhered to. It is highly recommended to not use any special characters in folder names, file names and also in document library names. Special characters such as ampersand, are not to be used. Always use alpha and numeric characters only.

Key benefits:

  • Logical naming of document libraries and file names improves navigation and makes the system more intuitive
  • Shorter and more user friendly URLs and no special characters used ensures continual system availability and functionality with improved usability.

STICK TO ONE TYPE OF CONTENT PER LIBRARY

To avoid hours of adding tags to bulk uploads, using one type of content per library can save time. This means organizing content distributed across different libraries can aid in reducing time required to tag documents in their corresponding libraries.

What are the benefits of implementing this best practice?

Key benefits:

  • Structure document libraries to store individual content types, shortening the time required to bulk tag documents
  • Improves content organisation and find-ability.

USE METADATA INSTEAD OF FOLDERS

Do not use folders to store content in document libraries because this can cause issues such as users misfiling documents, documents getting lost in nested folders, and it’s more time consuming to navigate around document libraries to locate content.

Tagging is preferable because it is more flexible. It also means you can view items by different classifications, which enriches the functionality of your library. Metadata provides the ability to view the list of files in the document library in different ways that allows you to find content quicker and also produces quality reports that is virtually impossible using folder structures.

Key benefits:

  • Better organisation of content
  • Ability to filter and group content using metadata
  • Provide useful reporting of content in document libraries
  • Improved content find-ability
  • Eliminates chances of documents getting lost in nested folders
  • Minimises chances of content getting misfiled.

For more of the best practice ideas visit the next post.